Hyrule's Requiem: Prelude (The First Symphony)
by DragonflyxParodies
Summary: The Requiem existed long before the Hero of Sky was born, his destiny set in song-but something has altered that, and now he must aide a stranger in his quest to repair that damage as he struggles to defeat the Demon King. Because there had been something before Hylia…. Slight AU, SS. [1/3]
1. Song 1

**_Hyrule's Requiem: Prelude_**

**_The First Symphony_**

**_Song I_**

Din's Power. He didn't recognize the name, or the implications the title of the song held, but he understood it was something unbelievably important and something unfathomably ancient. Fi was uncomfortable speaking of it—and of Nayru's Wisdom and Farore's Courage as well. He'd no idea what they were or why they bore such an incredible significance to the journey Hylia had set before him, but he knew it was vital. It was their Silent Realms he entered, their sacred gifts he fought to obtain, their flames that scorched Fi's essence raw and burned golden triangles onto the back of his hand. Not Hylia's.

The last strains of song echoing about the silvery-grey stone of the Isle of Songs fell silent, and he drew himself out of his thoughts before the hollow, cavernous silence that so often devoured the island could take him.

"Fi?" She let out a soft hum, spiraling down from the ceiling to hover near his shoulder as the pedestal he stood on began to lower, trembling as ancient mechanisms silently lowered their burden. She seemed content—he was always careful to watch her, to make certain she looked happy. Something said in passing to him by Scrapper still haunted him—that he'd no regard for her feelings and dragged her along against her will. She'd laughed when he'd asked her about it, said there was no other place she'd rather be, but he'd sensed the sadness behind her words and he was terrified of hurting her, the only person who had been there for him throughout Hylia's quest. She was his friend as much as his guide, and while she refused to acknowledge that, she meant more to him than Zelda did.

Zelda had left, not even given him a word of explanation, not explained to him the duty she forced him to take up before vanishing through Time. Fi explained _everything, _and she was _always_ there_._

"I suggest we head to Skyloft, Master Link. Gather your strength and replenish your exhausted supplies before we leave for Eldin-" There was a hitch in her voice as she fell silent and Link looked up at her curiously, lips parting to ask what was wrong.

She zoomed past him before he could say a word, one hand flying to her chest as a terrible cry tore free of her.

His senses were immediately on high alert. He drew the Goddess Sword instinctively, jumping from the pillar.

He slipped the moment his heels touched the floor, sliding and nearly falling onto his back. Fi's blade clattered across the stone, resting gently near the precipice as his hands flattened beneath him, barley managing to keep himself from falling on his back entirely.

Warm, wet, sticky. He knew what blood felt like even before he sucked in a sharp breath, inhaling the nauseating tang of copper. He moved slowly as he lowered himself to his knees and scooted over to the blade, snatching it up and sheathing it before he lost it in the slippery substance.

The pedestal came to a shuddering halt, and Link turned to Fi.

A crumpled body lay in the thickest part of the pool, small and silent and still. Fi knelt beside it, hands fluttering about frantically as she sought a pulse. His eyes tracked the blood trail, seeing that it originated from beneath the pedestal, where the statue had emerged.

Had the person come from _within_ the statue?

"He's a—He's alive, Mast—Master Link! Please-!"

He was there in an instant, gently sliding into place on the other side of the body and turning them over, one hand on the back of the stranger's head as he tilted it up. He paused then—no breath stirred the man's chest and he didn't react, didn't move. His body was limp, still as the dead. Then bandaged fingers spasmed around a bleeding gut, and Fi let out a soft cry of relief, all but sobbing already.

His free hand sought out the pouch at his hip, fumbling with the cold press of glass until he'd drawn out a bottle filled with heart potion and uncorked it. The stopper tumbled from his hand and bounced across the blood-soaked stone beneath them, rolling over the edge of the platform. Link paid it no heed, gaze darting to the stranger's face. A thick cloth was thrown over the lower half of his face, no longer cream but a dark red with his own blood, and Fi gently pulled the cowl down until it fell into a sopping mess around his throat.

"Fi-"

Pale lashes fluttered, and Link very nearly froze for an instant—the injured man's eyes were red, as brilliant as the liquid pouring from his stomach. It was a color Link had only seen in the eyes of the demons that haunted his nightmares, tearing free of the Imprisoned's seal to rip both Surface and sky apart at the seams.

But Fi's tears told him that this man wasn't evil, and Link flashed a smile at him as he tilted his head up farther, pressing the bottle against his lips.

The stranger's other hand shot up, wrapping around Link's wrist in an iron grip. His eyes focused briefly on Link, distrust and alarm flickering in their ruby depths, but his grip relaxed after a second, losing concentration and slumping in Link's grip. Link moved quickly, pouring the liquid past the stranger's lips. He swallowed most of it, until the focus returned and he began to fight, choking and spluttering as he jerked free.

"Careful-"

Fi was there immediately, hands pressing against the stranger's thrashing shoulders. She sang then, three notes shaking and trembling unsteadily, but still retaining their beauty. She repeated them once, twice, and the stranger's struggling faded, until his body fell back to the stone.

"_Fi…"_ Her name slipped past his lips before his eyes closed, unable to stay open any longer, and Link felt his own shock acutely.

_He knew Fi?!_

"Master Link, please. Analysis indicates he won't li—live for long and I can't-" Fi stopped speaking when Link stood, shoving the empty bottle into one of his pouches before scooping up the stranger's still form.

He weighed startlingly little—in fact, he _was_ little. Far thinner than healthy and a few inches shorter than Link himself. He wasn't a man, not yet, Link realized. He was a boy, no older than he was.

"Would he make it to the Surface?" He asked, hurrying for the exit point. It had changed—widened until the hole that he had to crawl through to enter the Isle's tower was a doorway, plenty big enough to carrying the injured man through. A blessing from the Goddess, he assumed.

"No, Master." He stopped dead, looking at her seriously.

"Where'll we go? We can't show up in Skyloft with a stranger. The Knights are only just managing to keep anyone from descending to the surface now—if anyone sees him it'll be chaos!" Fi hesitated a moment, then floated closer to him and unhooked something from his belt—his wallet, he realized.

"That was the last bottle of heart potion you had, Master Link. I will go on ahead and acquire some more. I suggest heading to the graveyard—the demon's home is hidden from the majority of Skyloft. Kukiel will know of his presence, but analysis indicates nothing disastrous will occur if they meet."

"Can you go that far from the sword?"

She shrugged, glancing down at the stranger. It was unnerving to see such a careless gesture from her.

"I will have to." She didn't waste any more time—she fled, a streak of amethyst light vanishing into a thick cloudbank. Link shifted his grip on the stranger, throwing his mind out to the skies and hooking onto the spot of light he knew to be his Loftwing, relaying his sense of urgency. The answering call sounded a moment later, echoing faintly across the skies.

He struggled in the next few minutes to position the stranger's body so that when he dove from the floating island and onto his Loftwing, he wouldn't hurt him—he'd never doubled up with anyone who wasn't a child before, not even Zelda.

His Loftwing's presence grew warmer, and Link took a running start.

His landing was messy and nearly sent the three of them crashing through the clouds, but his Loftwing, Hylia bless its soul, caught an updraft at just the right time and managed to salvage their plunge with only a wave of extreme annoyance directed at Link.

"I love you and I promise I will bring you something good from the Surface, alright? But he's dying and we've gotta hurry."

The stranger stirred in his arms, eyes opening, unfocused and hazy, before slumping further into his grip. His breathing was slowing.

Link drew him closer, and prayed.

XxXxX

_"…__No!"_

"Batreaux, we have _nowhere else to go_!"

"Do you know what he is? What_ I_ am? I can't-"

"…Master Sheik?"

He stirred, muddled words gaining clarity. His eyes flickered open—thank Nayru the lighting was dim—and he found himself staring up at the anxious face of Fi.

_Fi?_

His lips moved, but no sound came out. Vaguely, he remembered the tang of potion and cold air against his bare face and worried blue eyes glancing down at him and anxious threads of song nearly overpowering his feeble defenses.

Her fingers brushed gently against his stomach, tight with the press of bandages, and the grief he saw in her face broke the strains of music rising to break the silence he'd endured for millennia.

"-He's a _Sheikah!_"

"And you're a demon! I didn't kill you when I first saw you! You think it hasn't crossed my mind that you're lying to me? For Hylia's sake, _Girahim_ is the only other demon I've ever met and he's-"

The noise was deafening. He'd clasped his hands over his ears before he knew what he was doing, closing his eyes tightly as he let out a soft hiss of pain. Fi's grief was no longer a barrier, and notes built up within his throat, a low whine he refused to let grow into anything. Pressure, overwhelming and tantalizing and-

"-awake now! He'll do more than-"

"-More potion?"

"_Quiet!"_

-His eyes flashed open again, fingers clenched around strands of hair and pain splitting through his skull, his throat. There was an arm around his chest, holding him tightly against someone as he thrashed against their grip. He panicked, struggling to keep the music from escaping, trying to free himself from whatever was holding him—he'd _sworn_—

Fi grabbed his wrists, tugging his hands free and holding them down tightly.

"Master Link, there is a seventy percent chance that you will kill him if you continue to restrain him. There is an eighty-five percent chance that he will kill _you_ if you do not release him." Fi's voice was carefully controlled, dead and lifeless. He loathed it, hated hearing such emptiness, but the magic singing in her words would have killed him, and he was eternally grateful for that as he slumped into her, resting his forehead against her collarbone as the grip on him loosened, vanished.

"What's wrong?"

"He needs silence."

He could still feel the Silent Realm humming within his soul, and its echoes reverberated harshly within his head. Painful.

He realized he was nauseous in the same instant he realized that Fi was calling someone _Master_.

"I'm gonna go get some more potion. He'll reopen his wound if he sits like that. And I'll tell Kukiel to be quiet when she gets down here. Batreaux, if you even _think_ about touching him or speaking to him, I give Fi permission to kill you." The speaker's voice was quiet, the music in his voice gentle and musky like decaying forest matter, strong and quiet like feather tips slicing air currents.

He was subtle about it, lifting his head just enough so that he could see the bastard Fi had very nearly died for. He caught a glimpse of a hand gauntleted in brown leather setting the Goddess Sword against a nearby wall, a flash of green fabric, and the pain in his head grew too much. He rested his head against her shoulder again, closing his eyes.

And his mind drifted.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

**So, this is not going to be updated frequently. 'How to Live' and 'A Route' are my two main projects at this point. But this is a trilogy, an idea I've been working on for a long while now, and I had the first chapter written for a while, figured I'd post it. I hope you enjoy/ed this, there eventually will be more~**

**Both the title and the idea for this fic stemmed from a song I heard on youtube~'Hyrule's Requiem' by Bleeding Ink, a beautiful remix of Sheik's theme. While listening to it isn't essential to the story, I _am_ promoting them by suggesting you check the song out (not to mention their other kick ass Zelda remixes) and you can buy them on Itunes! I have no affiliation with Bleeding Ink, but I feel I owe them something seeing as how I'm naming this series off their song x3**


	2. Song 2

**_Hyrule's Requiem: Prelude_**

**_The First Symphony_**

**_Song II:_**

Link watched the stranger out of the corner of his eye, trying not to be too blatant about his curiosity. It had been three days since he'd woken, since Fi had demanded absolute silence. Link had obeyed her without question—it wasn't like he spoke a lot anyway—but it was beginning to wear on him. He was dying to ask the stranger, to ask _Fi,_ how they knew each other so well.

But Fi refused to leave the stranger's side, and Link avoided leaving them alone as much as possible.

Batreaux was probably one of the most trustworthy people Link knew—he knew about Link's quest to its full extent, and despite being a demon he protected Skyloft from any other demonic creatures that could take up residence on the island, _and_ he protected Kukiel—but his hatred of the stranger was damn near all-consuming. Link didn't trust him alone with the object of that hate.

They'd fashioned a sort of cot in one of the corners of Batreaux's home, piling bedding and as many blankets as Link could scavenge from the Academy's linen closets together for the stranger. Link snatched food from the kitchens for the three of them—Batreaux didn't need to eat but liked the taste of human food, and Link felt bad about imposing on him so rudely.

The stranger was curled up on it, knees to his chest, glaring at him.

The Sheikah, Batreaux called him. Link recognized the mark on the stranger's clothing as the same one Impa wore so proudly, save more archaic. He hadn't taken them off except to wash the blood off of them. Maybe the two were blood-related? The thought of Impa being the boy's relative was almost enough to make him wince—he wouldn't wish that even on Groose.

"…What…What are you called?"

He didn't respond immediately, staring at the red-eyed stranger in surprise. His voice was very quiet, very soft. Link's eyes fell to Fi, uncertain, but she appeared asleep—lying beside the stranger, eyes closed and head bowed and cape not fluttering like it did when she was awake.

"Link." He watched the stranger intently, seeking any sign of pain, of discomfort. There was a tension to his body, but that had been there before. His eyes flicked away from Link's momentarily, almost too quickly to notice. Nothing too bad, though.

"You know Fi?" Link finally asked, staring at Fi.

"...I wrote her song. Her soul." The stranger murmured, gently resting a hand on her head, smoothing the porcelain of her hair back. The tenderness and affection in the gesture wasn't lost on Link, though the explanation only confused him.

"…How'd you get to the Isle?" Link finally asked, softly. He knew the stranger wasn't from Skyloft—if he was, his bird would have been tearing down the walls of Batreaux's home to reach him and ensure his safety, never mind the fact that Link would have recognized him immediately.

"I was bound to Nayru's Silent Realm to sleep until Hyrule's need of me grew unbearable." The stranger murmured, head tilting to the side and strands of his hair cascading past his face. Link's alarm was immediate.

"…Are you saying-?"

"No. I wasn't supposed to wake this early. I've millennia to wait left…" Anxiety flickered in his eyes, and Link found himself wondering if there was another reason Fi didn't want noise—there were things the stranger could know that they weren't meant to hear.

He was young, though. Small, slight, and very, _very, _young. What use could he possibly have—and why in Hylia's name would he be bound to something so important as the Silent Realm?

"I entered Nayru's Silent Realm. Could that have woken you…?" Something seemed to relax in the red-eyed boy, and he rested his cheek on his knees as he gazed at Link.

"It shouldn't have. Nayru equipped it to deal with the stress of the dead. Your entrance was little more than a breath of air against its defenses." That, Link decided, was not meant as an insult. Though it did sting. Everything he'd gone through and he could barely poke at this Nayru's magic? What said that the Imprisoned would be any different next time they faced?

"…So Nayru was…an actual person?" Red eyes widened and the boy's body snapped to attention, suddenly seething with anger—and Fi was up in an instant, hovering between them and giving the stranger a hard glare.

"Master Sheik-"

"-No! She took her pets up here and left us to _die-_"

"Please-"

"-and just let them _forget_?" The stranger—what had Fi called him? Sheik?—was on his feet and glaring at her fiercely, one hand fisted at his thigh and the other grabbing onto the wall to keep him from losing his balance. Link himself was standing, Fi's sword halfway drawn from its sheath out of habit out of instinct.

"It was necessary." Fi's voice was almost entirely inaudible.

"In what way is that _necessary_, Fi? Explain it to me or so help me I'll kill her myself!" The stranger lurched away from the wall, eyes flashing dangerously. Link sheathed his blade and moved forward quickly, catching him when his strength gave out. The stranger was stiff and tense, but he grabbed fistfuls of Link's tunic tightly in his hands and sagged against him.

"…To protect the Triforce. It is the essence of the Three and if the people of Skyloft remembered them, they would remember it. Hylia is the only Goddess they know of, recognize, and worship. All to pave the road for Master Link's quest. You know-"

"-He already knows about it! He's been-"

"And the people of Skyloft _don't._ It has prevented any more problems from arising and kept the Triforce safe. The Three were fully willing and they accepted Her Grace's plan before they departed. And you agreed-"

"_Not to this!"_ Link slipped an arm around the stranger's thin frame, hugging him without a thought. His voice had cracked and he sounded near tears, and he dropped his head onto Link's shoulder and let out a shaky breathe immediately. A long moment of tense silenced past before Link dared to break it.

"Sorry." Fi shot him an incredulous look.

"I didn't mean to start anything." Link said hesitantly, lifting a hand to rub the stranger's back like Zelda had so often done to him. Fi caught his glance and shook her head, warning him frantically not to do so—he dropped his hand quickly.

Why were people so _difficult_? He missed the days that he spent just smiling and nodding and following Zelda's lead. Then, if he had never done enough, at least he hadn't done something blatantly _wrong_.

The stranger's grip on him tightened for a moment, then he pushed away from Link, pressing his palm to his eyes.

"I just…Fi…" He sounded so _broken…_

"Come with me, Master Link. Let him recover alone…"

"Batreaux will kill him if we leave him alone. Not while he's up here." A short staring contest ensued, but Fi finally relented.

"Are you fit enough to travel to the Surface, Master Sheik?" The stranger—Sheik?—tensed, and very deliberately lowered his hand.

"We're in the fucking sky. How are we going to get down, Fi?" The calmness in the stranger's voice prickled at Link's nerves, at bad odds with his language.

"We jump."

"I am _not-_"

"Din _herself_-"

"Don't care!"

"The Goddesses' magic has a zero percent chance of fail-"

"I'm not jumping-"

"I have a sailcloth." Link interjected, looking at the stranger in bemusement. Immediately his eyes, blazing crimson, locked on him.

"And that's supposed to make me feel better _how_?"

"…Zelda made it?"

He really shouldn't have said anything. Not with the look the stranger was leveling at him.

"Her Grace-" Fi started, fluttering anxiously off to the side.

"Don't' care! I can-"

"No you can't! You don't know what Symphony you woke in and the Song is still hurting you!" He'd never heard Fi speak so informally before, so loudly, and he looked at her curiously. She must know this Sheik very well, he realized, far beyond the vague impression he had of their relationship.

He tried to ignore the pang that ran through him.

"You aren't safe here." Link's voice was soft. Sheik's eyes narrowed, focused on him.

"I don't care who you are. You're important to Fi. That's enough for me." He said firmly, not looking away from the boy's ruby orbs.

That seemed to shake him. The hostility in his posture drained away, though his body language remained stiff.

When Link reached out and touched his arm, he didn't pull away.

"He's waiting outside."

"Who?" Sheik asked.

Link's bird let out a cry, and tapped the door with its beak impatiently. His bird's excitement was infectious. Link couldn't keep a smile from crossing his lips.

"Have you ever seen a Loftwing before?"

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

**SO. This has been lying around for a while, thought I'd post it so you guys have something. I've got a ton of schoolwork to deal with, though, so this'll probably be it for updates for a while besides some other things that are almost done…mostly oneshots.**

**Anyway, SO THE PLOT THICKENS. This story will be shorter than most of my other multichapter things. I think. But that's bc it will stretch over three different stories (or Symphonies lol). This chapter would have been longer, but then it would have been stupidly complex, so I just split it up to make it easier. Hope you enjoyed reading it ;3**


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